Status Updates From Jesus and the Origins of th...

Once we view Jesus' ministry to Israel through the lens of a Jewish theology of creation and covenant it becomes apparent that the renewal of Israel implied nothing less than the renewal of Israel's mission which was to be the vehicle through which God's saving power would be manifest to all the nations of the earth. (56-57)

I would contend that Jesus' message was political in that it addressed the tide of Jewish nationalism and Israel's increasing penchant for a bloody and pointless confrontation with Rome...Jesus did not de-politicize or spiritualize hopes for restoration, but his conception of restoration redefined or shifted the political problem from Rome to Israel herself. (37)

My objective is to develop a historically plausible solution to this diverse evidence by postulating the way in which the Gentile mission relates to the aims and actions of the historical Jesus. Such a solution must be plausible in view of Jesus' mission to Israel, but it must also account for the missionary drive in the early church. (11)